this post was submitted on 20 Aug 2024
145 points (91.0% liked)

Showerthoughts

29172 readers
146 users here now

A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The best ones are thoughts that many people can relate to and they find something funny or interesting in regular stuff.

Rules

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

Just thinking, is the art style only symbolic of the universe or is everything actually like that in-universe?

all 42 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 48 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

They see themselves like that but that's also their reality, they don't know otherwise.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

You occasionally get situations when the animators switch the art style every now and then, but the characters still exist in the same universe, so I wonder if the characters wonder why everything looks slightly different.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I believe they don't. They don't realize there was ever a change.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Inside Out is a great example of just that. While I couldn't find the scene, here's an excerpt from tvtropes.com:

*Entering the Abstract Thought Chamber in Inside Out caused the characters to turn into 2D figures with increasingly less defined shapes. *

If I remember correctly, the characters actually acknowledge the shift to less detailed artstyles.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 weeks ago

Fair, there are several examples of characters acknowledging the shift in very specific circumstances. Often said circumstances are plot related one way or another.

But usually that's not the case, and if you have a change of art because now it's a different studio producing the animation or they release a new season with a different art director and budget then no, it's implied that the aesthetic status quo has always been the same.

[–] [email protected] 39 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Depends on whether the author is breaking the fourth wall or not

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 weeks ago

Beans day!!

[–] [email protected] -3 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 12 points 3 weeks ago

Like it or not, it’s not being “brought” here; it already exists here.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

In Star Trek SNW's crossover episode with Lower Decks (cartoon), Boimler's first comment when he meets the crew from SNW is that they look "very realistic"

[–] Klear 1 points 3 weeks ago

And eventually it is explained that they see the world as animated because they are all permanently drunk.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Strange New Worlds/Lower Decks actually addressed that.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

I'm so sad they are cancelling the show after this next season airs in a few weeks. Best animated adaptation of an existing universe.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 weeks ago

Same! It's my favorite current Trek show.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

no, what, whyy? :(

[–] [email protected] 16 points 3 weeks ago

It depends on the author! Authors create symbolic universes and they get to choose the rules of those universes. You can read Robert McKee’s work for more on this.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I remember something with a cartoon character commenting on how live-action people look kind of disturbing and surreal. They noticed the difference, and it didn’t sit well with them. Their own uncanny valley.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 weeks ago
[–] weker01 15 points 3 weeks ago

Depends on the author.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

In "Treehouse of Horror VI" Homer becomes 3D and comments how he's "so bulky".

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (2 children)

The other characters are quite perplexed about the idea of 3D, too, not just the stupid Homer. A scientist gives a brief lecture, similar to how scientists IRL introduce 4D.

Anyway, that answers the good old question "Is the gruesome cartoon Itchy & Scratchy photorealistic from the Simpson's POV?"

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Photorealistic: yes. However, it could be debatable whether it's gruesome. We see situations that characters survive with short term damage but no long term consequences (example: Homer skating into the canyon). So while it would be gruesome to us, it's probably closer to slapstick to them.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 weeks ago

I never thought about its gruesomness this way.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 weeks ago

It would be abhorrent for us to see photorealistic cat organs but I guess kids in The Simpsons' universe are raised differently.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 weeks ago

And the first thing he did in the 3D world was go to an erotic bakery. I always thought it was a dumb throwaway joke but after thinking about it, that would be a fun first experience in the 3D world

[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 weeks ago

In Peanuts, all adults would sound like "wah wah, wha wah wha wah wha wah", to which the children would respond as if they made perfect sense.

Then again, I prefer thinking about your second possibility so I'm going with that one:-).

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 weeks ago

Im not high enough to answer that!

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 weeks ago

Art style. But they don't notice it the same way you dont notice art style of people around you, and fish don't notice the water.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 weeks ago

In Chip and Dale 2022, they explicitly refer to the "upgrade" to 3D rendering from the old painted style (like plastic surgery to them), so I assume they are fully aware of their art style.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 weeks ago

Hazbin Hotel and Helluva Boss have jokes about the art style. Sounds to me that the characters see each other the way we see them.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 weeks ago

It depends on the work, in some it's symbolic and in some it's in-universe.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 weeks ago
[–] Noel_Skum 3 points 3 weeks ago

I’m not an authority on this but I believe that objectively a character WILL look like “that” but when viewed subjectively they look like “this”. So, in short, to answer your question: yes, but not really. I hope this helps.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 weeks ago

Centaurworld is a pretty good example of characters being aware of their own animation style as one character slowly transforms between the two.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

Most cartoons I assume they just see the world as it is in the cartoon. However SpongeBob SquarePants sees it the way it looks when they do those live action segments.

Ren & Stimpy see it as a cartoon, but they see it in the style of those super gross closeup shots. "It's hiiiiideous, Stimpy!" "I'm scared, Ren!"

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

There 2D is like our 4D. The same way we can't see 4D, they see 2D as normal and 3D is unachievable to them as for us 4D. Same with the style. They see themselves at the same style as what is normal to them.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

Final Crisis had some of this with Thought Robot superman. Iirc they included 3D glasses so you could see Superman reach out to you in our realm one he gained concession of us. Check out some other Grant Morrison works for trippy meta fiction (pls read Animal Man)

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 weeks ago

Much like ourselves, they see each other in the cartoon style of their universe.